Aetna Beats Wilderness Therapy Coverage Lawsuit

Aetna Life Insurance Co. defeated a lawsuit by parents of two teenagers who sought to recover thousands of dollars they paid for wilderness therapy in Colorado and Utah.

The insureds didn’t sufficiently allege that the facilities where the teenagers received treatment—Open Sky Wilderness Therapy in Colorado, and Aspiro Group Inc., in Utah—meet the requirements to be covered as residential treatment facilities under their plans, a federal judge in Florida held Dec. 13.

The ruling is the latest to come from a growing list of lawsuits against major insurers and employers that refused to cover wilderness therapy.

These programs seek to ...